Step 1: A stellate (star-shaped) granuloma describes a central irregular focus of necrosis with neutrophils surrounded by palisading histiocytes - a suppurative granuloma pattern. Step 2: Cat scratch disease, caused by Bartonella henselae after a cat or kitten scratch, produces exactly this picture in the regional lymph nodes: follicular hyperplasia with central stellate necrosis, palisading histiocytes, and sinuses packed with monocytoid B cells. Step 3: Sarcoidosis instead shows non-caseating, non-necrotizing epithelioid granulomas, so the necrotic stellate pattern does not fit. Step 4: Cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis are fungal infections whose granulomas contain the organisms (capsulated yeast or intracellular yeast) and tend to be caseating or histiocyte-rich rather than stellate-suppurative. Hence cat scratch disease is the answer.